Reflection on January 26, 1983

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb106.htm

Being male or female speaks to us. There is meaning there, order, truth. The world wants to ignore this “language”, but ignoring it only cost us. It will only lead to more confusion because as you move further from the fundamental understanding, you move further away from the truth, and moving further away from truth only leads to confusion. But spousal unity, which is an area where this language of the body is spoken in a unique way, is a complex meaning. Even within a marriage, the language can be misunderstood, the unity can be abused. This is because of our sinfulness and our misuse. We cause hurt and distrust. But this is because the language of the body is complex and we don’t fully understand or appreciate it. It is hard enough to understand the language within a healthy marriage, but the world wants to garble the language until it is almost incoherent. Look at the confusion that is caused by sex outside of marriage, especially with the young, the commitment that isn’t there, the repercussions, the outcomes that lack of trust in future relationships. That is because this complex language is only meant to be spoken within a marriage, and only a marriage of 2 that understand what the marriage is about.

I was thinking of the way the world wants to speak this complex language to us in the simplest ways, without any rules, and not truly getting the point across. I relate it to someone trying to tell someone something very important and complicated through a text message. The world wants us to have enough of an understanding of male and female and marriage and sex through a text message, because they don’t think we will pay attention to anything longer.

SJPII talks about true and false prophets. We have already seen that the married couple are themselves prophets in speaking God’s language through their marriage. We can then apply that to those that use sex and other marital type relationships to speak to the world and see them as the false prophets, the ones that cause scandal, that lead the sheep astray. I think this also supports the idea of couples, and prospective couples, praying the vows. They are a continual reminder of what marriage is about, but also what they are prophesying to the world.